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Oops, I did it again. I'm really trying to stop buying watches for a bit, but stumbled on what I thought was a very cool-looking watch from the late sixties/early seventies. I dug the "atomic transistor" logo, and it looked super clean. Being that it was in a monocoque case, and that I bought a crystal vise to deal with them, I decided to take the gamble. It just looked really clean. The insides were just as clean as the outside, and the battery checked out to 0 volts, so I knew one thing. Since this ESA Dynatron movement takes a rather odd battery, 344/1136, I had to wait to get one delivered. It came today and I put it in the watch. At first it wouldn't get going. Then I remembered that it has a hacking mechanism and the stem was in winding position. I popped into "wind" position and gave her a little twist and off she went. It seems to run pretty well but if the stem is pulled out and the watch stopped, it takes a twist to get it running again. I don't know if it's designed that way or the watch is somehow out of electronic beat? Anyway, I'm stoked on the watch. It's very cool to watch the hybrid mechanism that has a balance wheel that is impulsed electronically. I hope the video I took with my phone shows up. If not, you can take my word that it's running. IMG_0855.MOV

I've been wearing this one for the last 2 days...

One thing to remember about quartz movements is that there is virtually no torque compared to mechanical movements. So, there's very little side-thrust on the bearings. The lack of torque also means that they are very easily stopped by dirt (or grease!).

Problem solved. It was indeed too much lubrication. The grease wasn't doing it... The manual even states that you should just lubricate the stem area... Thank you guys!

That part. Blue circle. And put a good battery in . No China batteries allowed Check the first picture? Could be a shortcircuit if you put that on the battery?

You should use very light oil.

Gold colored screws & plates Are quite common on quartz watches. If you look at your gold screw it's on the circuit for grounding so it tells you that this is the grounding screw. Other times I think it's just to make the watch look pretty. If you look at Omega version of a ETA movement they'll usually have a gold cover over everything all the metals goldplated just to make it look nicer. Then quartz watches you believe really really perfect with them. They have no power to push through bad lubrication for lubrication speck of dust is enough to stop them in the right place almost. Moebius Actually makes a specific Quartz Watch Oil 9000. It does really work well for quartz watches versus using other lubrication's. Then for isolating problems it's nice to have proper test equipment. Like how much Current is this watch consuming and running a low-voltage check how lower voltage can you go before the watch stops.

Ok here's the follow up of re-sizing a mainspring. I could not get the correct length vs. the strength so I purchased a longer spring.To double check i was cutting the new spring to the correct size I measured the old one with a piece of string. I then marked the new spring and cut with a diamond wheel. However when I tried to drill the end hole the drill just would not cut so I softened the metal with heat. After drilling the holes I finished with some filling. However I got a unwanted bend just before where it hooks and I suppose because the metal was now soft I could not remedy this so I had to cut off another inch and do the same process again and this time it worked treat. In future if possible I will see if I can purchase a diamond drill to make the hole. See some pics of the procedure. Spring marked ready for cutting Diamond wheel used for the cutting After cut Holes drilled Almost ready just a little more filing.

Check the stepper motor for dirt around the bearings. Broken gear on motor is common to.

Likely just dirt in the train, assuming the battery contacts are ok.

Would have been better to save my old Tissot if they where gold. I sold them on Tradera for next to nothing. If i only would have known those screws where gold i could have sell the screws . I think they are brass . Probably plated but don't think that either. Gold is to soft to make screws from.

I understand that a coiled spring can be modeled as a series of small cantilever beams. The strength of such a beam is dependent on the moment of inertia = width*thickness³/12 (that's thickness cubed) i.e the strength of the spring is FAR more dependent on the thickness than the width. So try to get the thickness as close as possible

Ok, so firstly, your photos look ok, but nothing compares to having a close look with a loupe. Preferably a 10x or 12x for really close inspection. The issue is not necessarily a fault with the safety action, buit it's always worth checking, and should only take you a few seconds. Look at this image, and try to understand how the safety action works, and why it is absolutely necessary on the lever escapement: The drawing above is showing you a view looking straight down on the balance, but the hairsping, balance wheel and impulse roller have been made invisible as they sit directly above the safety roller and block our view. The safety roller acts like a gate with a rule, which is that the pallet fork is only allowed to pass when the safety roller is oriented such that the half-moon cutout is in line with the guard pin / dart (in yellow). If the pallet fork tries to move away from either banking pin (say we gave the watch a hard knock) when the cutout is not in alignment then the guard pin will simply crash into the cylindrical body of safety roller, and the pallet fork will return to the banking pin due to the feature called draw. Draw is the effect that the escape wheel has when pressing agaisnt a pallet jewel; it not only holds the pallet jewel static, but also tries to increase its depth of locking slightly and actually causes the entire watch gear train to recoil backwards slightly. To test the safety action of the guard pin and the safety roller, you must have the watch slightly wound; enough for it to run and therefore to ensure that the pallet form is drawn towards the banking pins and held there. Now we need to test the shake (play/freedom) of the pallet fork while the safety roller is not in its rest position. Very carefully arrest the balance wheel with a light oiler, or similar. Now rotate the balance wheel round to approximately 90 degrees away from rest and hold it there. You can use an oiler to do this or if it's a cheap watch then you can sometimes use the edge of your finger agaisnt the balance wheel. Next, use something delicate like an oiler to push the pallet fork away from the banking pin. There should just be the slightest amount of shake detected. You might not be able to see it visibly, but you should be able to feel it. If there is no shake, then the gurad pin/safety pin/ dart may be dragging against the roller. Repeat this test for the other side, ie. rotate the balance around the other direction. There is an additional aspect to the safety action which is the horns of ther pallet fork (the metal which surround the slot on the pallet fork where the impulse jewel enters) but this can probably wait for just now.

Slightly off watches, but having used this method successfully on broken stems in crowns in the past, I have moved onto larger items, namely removing a broken steel bleed nipple (circled, under the cloud of bubbles) from an aluminium motorcycle disc brake calliper. Not quite there yet after about 5 hours of gentle simmering, but heat certainly speeds things up... Note the item is placed in the alum solution within a glass pyrex bowl or it would eat the steel saucepan!

Today I lost my wonderful cat Crumble. He would have been 20 in September. I feel so empty and sad. Here he is in better times. God bless you. I will always love and think of you.

Its out of beat. It will run for longer when in beat.